I checked out the link you provided... and because I also have the 'Markup' hack installed, step 7 in the 'last post by' hack is skipped. So your instructions in the link don't apply.... or perhaps can be modified for the 'Markup' hack code.... or since v6.1 is going to interfere with the 'Markup' hack, perhaps something better can be written?
Anyway, no matter how many responses are made to a topic, if the last response is deleted, the name is not removed from the index for the forum. It still says 'by so-n-so' after so-n-so has deleted his response. It should say 'by previous person' if there are more than one response or not say anything at all if the topic only has 1 message. I've tested my board and whether there is just one or many responses, the name is not removed from the index.
In any case, I appreciate all the good work you guys do here.
FC